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The Cain Train Is Back On Track In S.C., With Colbert As Conductor

The Herman Cain tour bus in South Carolina.
Arnie Seipel
/
NPR
The Herman Cain tour bus in South Carolina.

NPR's Arnie Seipel came upon something unexpected in Charleston, S.C. and he sent this picture of it:

Yep. The Cain Train is back in South Carolina and he's getting help from comedian Stephen Colbert, who as we've noted, announced his intention to run for President of South Carolina.

Alas, he was too late to get on the ballot by the time he made his intentions clear, earlier this month, so he decided that he would use Herman Cain — who quit the race amid a flurry of sexual allegations in December, but whose name will still appear on the South Carolina ballot — as a surrogate.

As ABC News puts it, the endorsement has revived the Cain Train and the former Godfather's Pizza CEO has refueled his tour bus and pointed it to South Carolina, where Colbert announced they would host a joint rally in Charleston on Friday.

According to the Colbert News Hub, the pair will announce "they are the same man" at the "The Rock Me Like A Herman Cain: South Cain-Olina Primary Rally."

"Herman is the only former candidate who truly shares my values," Colbert said in a press release. "It's like our values were separated at birth. And our ethics are at least first cousins."

As for how this may actually affect the race, we'll see on Saturday. But a Marist poll released today found that 18 percent of people in South Carolina said they were "kinda somewhat likely" to vote for Herman Cain.

Now, while the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion actually publishes serious polls, this one was funded by Colbert's SuperPAC Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, so consider the source.

The poll also found that a majority of South Carolina residents "believe Colbert would be no better or worse than any other president of the United States of South Carolina."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.